WebNovels

Chapter 89 - Chapter 89: Recording the Album

Over lunch, they discussed where the new company should be based. Tiffany felt that for now, there wasn't enough work to justify renting a new place—her music store was more than enough.

Since she brought it up herself, William and Cynthia had no objections. They just said if they used her store, Earth Games would cover half the rent.

After all, rent for such a big place couldn't be cheap. If they used it without paying, it would eat into Tiffany's interests, and that wasn't good for either side.

But what they didn't expect was that the deed of RiverTone Music had Tiffany's name on it. In other words, it was her own property.

Owning a luxury apartment in Riverdale's prime area, a five- to six-hundred-square-meter shop inside the third ring, bidding two million at an auction without batting an eye, then giving up her share afterward—William suddenly realized he had underestimated Tiffany's wealth.

Was art really that profitable?

Maybe the answer would come when his album went online in a few days.

That afternoon.

The three returned to Tiffany's RiverTone Music. For William's first album, he needed to re-record every track in a professional recording studio.

"Für Elise," "Moonlight Sonata," "Flight of the Bumblebee," "Canon in D," "Castle in the Sky," "Mariage d'Amour."

Six piano pieces in total. Although it was a small number for an album, the quality was enough—each piece alone was a timeless classic.

Tiffany and Cynthia stood outside the studio, both with faces full of admiration.

"No matter how many times I hear it, I can't get enough."

"I really don't know how someone so young could write these pieces."

"Yeah. Every song tells a story—love, longing, separation. It's hard to imagine a boy who just turned eighteen could have gone through all that."

"Could it be… he's actually a playboy?"

Tiffany's eyes widened at Cynthia, shocked at how she could come to that conclusion.

Cynthia said, "I may not have written music myself, but you should know best that music is the truest way to show what's inside a person's heart. Without real experience, it's hard to create something that really connects with others. It's like building a pyramid—you need stones as the base. For music, emotions are that base."

Tiffany argued, "But there are geniuses out there too."

"Do you think he's handsome?"

"Well, not that handsome, but his vibe is pretty unique."

"Exactly. You see, both you and I are drawn to that vibe. That means others will be too. Don't look at the fact he's only eighteen. Kids born after 2000 grow up fast. Lots of them already had dozens of relationships by the time they were seventeen or eighteen."

Cynthia's words left Tiffany with nothing to say. Thinking back to that night, she had thought she scared William off by being too forward, but now it felt more like he was just playing hard to get.

But… was that really true?

While William was playing the piano, he suddenly felt two strange looks on him. Distracted, he glanced toward the sound room and saw where those looks came from.

It was a gaze mixed with doubt and worry, which made William wonder if he was playing something wrong.

Could his ability actually be fading?

No, that wasn't possible. Unless maybe years later, when the body naturally gets weaker, that might cause some decline.

But weaker with age… he was only eighteen. Even counting his soul's age, he was just twenty-six. Maybe the real problem was that he wasn't putting enough feeling into his playing.

Yeah, music needs emotion.

After figuring it out, William began recalling his own experiences. Sure, they weren't as dramatic as the original composers', but blending his own unique life with his master-level piano skills gave the music a certain flavor.

Meanwhile, in the sound room, Cynthia and Tiffany saw William glance at them. They started listening even harder, and their minds immediately tied his look to the guess they'd just made about him. The more they looked, the more it seemed like he was showing off on purpose.

When William finally finished recording six songs and walked out, Cynthia and Tiffany's attitude had totally flipped. Instead of the warm welcome from earlier, they now kept their distance.

William couldn't hold back and asked, "Did I play something wrong?"

"No."

"It was good."

Their answers were almost the same—casual, but not too casual.

William frowned. "Then why do you both look so strange?"

"Do we?" Cynthia replied with a cold face.

Tiffany, also distant, said, "Yeah, nothing's wrong."

William sighed. "If I really played badly, just tell me. I'll do my best to improve."

He couldn't afford to mess up the first album.

"No, it was really good. Very good."

"Yeah, trust yourself."

William looked at them back and forth. Aside from the cold attitude, he couldn't see anything unusual.

"Alright then, let's head back."

Cynthia shook her head. "I'm not going back yet. I need to discuss some album stuff with Miss Tang. Why don't you take a cab and go back first?"

"Okay, then you two talk. I'll head out."

Saying that, William walked all the way to the music shop entrance. Looking back, the two were already gone. Clearly, they hadn't planned on walking him out at all.

He really couldn't figure out what was going on between them, but he didn't think too much about it either. Other than finishing his remaining work, his mind was already planning the theme for his next game.

The next game would be like Jump Jump—a time-filler game. The main reason he chose this direction was because Earth Games already had two big mainstream games coming soon. Releasing another mainstream game now would only cause them to compete with each other. Better to wait.

Speaking of time-filler games, he couldn't ignore the results of Jump Jump. When it first launched, thanks to promotion on WeChat and the hype of being the first widget game, it spread through nearly the whole Chinese-speaking WeChat user base.

But because it lacked depth and replay value, its popularity crashed as fast as a stock market circuit breaker. In less than a month, it was basically dead. And with its limited gameplay, even adding updates was tough—there just wasn't much room for new content.

Even if he did find new content, it would probably mean redoing the whole game, which would take more work than just making a new one.

So the next game's direction had to fix Jump Jump's weaknesses, but still stay as a casual game that didn't eat up people's daily time.

On Blue Star, people might be used to slacking off a bit at work, but that didn't mean they got to avoid their real tasks. In other words, their life pressures weren't any less than Earth's—they were stuck in the same grind.

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